All posts tagged Christian Slater

In the latest episode of “Mr. Robot,” hacker Elliot Alderson (played by Rami Malek) contemplates his screwed-up situation as he prepares to snort a final line of morphine.

“What I do have? Clinical depression, social anxiety, a day job, a night job, confusing relationships, others depending on me, taking down the largest corporation in the world, and I chose it all,” Elliot says, speaking to the audience (or someone inside his head) in one of the character’s now-familiar voiceovers.

The debut series, which deals with the corroding effects of technology, societal numbness and corporate dominance, has come as a surprise to viewers who associated USA Network with lighter stuff such as “Suits” and “Royal Pains.” USA, keen for some rebranding, renewed “Mr. Robot” for a second season before it premiered.

With all the news today about “Baby Fae,” the California baby who was given the world’s first baboon heart transplant in 1984 and lived 21 days, Speakeasy’s memory was jogged into thinking about the film “Untamed Heart.” We have a soft spot for the 1993 romantic drama, which starred Christian Slater as a sensitive busboy with, yes, a baboon’s heart, because it was the first PG-13 movie we ever paid good allowance money for. The film co-starred a pre-”My Cousin Vinny” Marisa Tomei as Caroline, a waitress who falls for Slater’s character after he rescues her from an attempted rape by a couple of thugs.

Speakeasy tracked down “Untamed Heart” screenwriter Tom Sierchio to talk to him about his inspiration for the film. Sierchio says that when writing the screenplay, he was thinking less of “Baby Fae” directly and more about being intrigued by the Paul Simon song “The Boy in the Bubble,” which features the lyric: “Medicine is magical and magical is art think of The Boy in the Bubble // And the baby with the baboon heart.”

“The original script was a little darker and grittier, but after we had Christian Slater attached, we had to take the edge off because his fans at the time were younger,” said Sierchio. “The original script was set in New Jersey, not Minneapolis, and Marisa’s character was much tougher.”

More interesting: Sierchio said that initially Madonna was set to play Tomei’s part, though eventually it didn’t work out. Read More »

Conan On ‘Tonight’: The late-night host finally took the reins Monday. His first joke: “I’ve timed this moment perfectly. I’m on a last place network, I moved to a state that’s bankrupt, and tonight’s show is sponsored by General Motors.” [Newsday]

Paris to Dubai: The hotel heiress is taking her reality show, “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF” to the Middle East thanks to a partnership between Lionsgate and Ish Entertainment and the Dubai-based Uniqon. As in the old version, Hilton will put contestants through a series of challenges to see who gets to be her friend. [Variety]

Brawl Staged: That whole incident when Sascha Baron Cohen descended from the rafters at the MTV Movie Awards dressed as an angel and landed bottoms-up in Eminem’s face? Yeah, as you suspected. The head writer spilled all on his tumblr. [LAT]

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.